


steady feet, don't fail me now

by Miss_Marigold



Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Cheating, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Infidelity, Lots of Angst, M/M, babygate, sad Nick :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 23:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5434829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Marigold/pseuds/Miss_Marigold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s true.” </p>
<p>And with that, Nick’s pushed over the edge of the precipice he’d been teetering on. He pauses; the mug he’d just grabbed out of the cupboard still clenched in his grip, frozen in the motion.</p>
<p>OR: Louis and Nick were in a relationship, but babygate still happens. (one-shot)</p>
            </blockquote>





	steady feet, don't fail me now

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one-shot I dreamt up. 
> 
> Background: Nick and Louis are in a long-term relationship, Louis is on break or something from tour, idk. Nick always sees bunches of dumb headlines about his boyfriend, and jokingly brings up the ones about Briana being pregnant. This fic is the result of that conversation.
> 
> let me know if you like this, via kudos or comments or whatever. :)

“It’s true.” 

And with that, Nick’s pushed over the edge of the precipice he’d been teetering on. He pauses; the mug he’d just grabbed out of the cupboard still clenched in his grip, frozen in the motion.

“Nick? Nick, just, fuck. Just let me explain, ok?” Louis pleads. Nick still hasn’t turned around to see his face, but he’s pretty sure it would be Louis panicking.

But what is there to explain? Louis was away, as he always was, and fucked some bird. Fucked her enough that he’s impregnated her, Nick thinks bitterly. While Nick was stuck in London, alone even though he was surrounded by a sea of friends, Louis had been fucking his way through the women of LA. While Nick sat on the couch with Pig and a bottle of wine, looking through old photos of him and his boyfriend just to feel like he had a piece of him, Louis had been out clubbing and getting high and whatever else had been happening on this shitshow of a tour.

“... and Oli was the one who brought the girls, and HE was the one who was planning on getting with Briana but like we were talking and she was nice and I was drunk and we were just going to go back to the hotel to talk some more”

Does Louis just think he’s an idiot? That he’s that pathetic that he’ll agree to any stupid excuse that Louis deigns to provide? Because apparently Louis doesn’t even care about Nick enough to not sleep around, while Nick would have given up anything to secure a future with Louis. A real future, not the ridiculous charade they’d been playing at for the last three years. He couldn’t just sit here listening to Louis’s bullshit reasoning that he’s sure he had convinced even himself of.

“Stop.”

“But Nick, just hear it all out ok? We were just talking and-”

No, no, he doesn’t need to hear the rest of it. Because, the end-game is still the same. Louis stuck his dick up in this girl and was stupid enough to not wear a condom and there will be physical evidence of his fucking affair in less than seven months. 

“Louis, stop talking.”

“Nick it won’t help anything if we don’t talk about this, we need to work through this-”

As if this was one of their normal bickerings, as if this wasn’t something that was going to change their lives forever. Talking about it won’t magically make this random bird disappear, or the baby vanish. Why isn’t Louis getting this? Louis fucked someone else. Louis fucked someone that wasn't Nick. Louis came in someone that wasn’t Nick, and there was going to be a living, breathing human born as a result. Nick saw her picture in The Sun; blonde, curves, short skirt. All he can imagine is Louis, his Louis, fucking into her in some non-descript hotel room. Louis calling out someone else’s name as he finishes, Louis touching someone else in those quiet post-coital moments. 

He can still hear Louis rambling, still trying to smooth things over, and Nick just needs it to be quiet, he just needs to think, but he can’t think because all he can hear in his head is Louis saying her name, the sounds of Louis fucking someone that isn’t him. 

But Louis is in front of him, and he won’t shut up, he needs to shut up-

The mug crashes into the wall on the other side of the room, and Nick stares in horror at his own hand. It hadn’t gone anywhere near Louis, but Nick just couldn’t listen anymore and he wasn’t listening and he just needed quiet, some quiet in the rattling that was his head.

Louis is finally silent, seemingly shocked that Nick, the slightly more rational one in this fucked relationship, had actually thrown something in anger.

And Nick is disgusted with himself, that he had resorted to violence, that he was becoming this person. Their relationship had been struggling during this latest tour, and Nick felt spread thin for the last half a year. Maybe he shouldn’t have been trying so hard, if the culmination of his efforts was that his boyfriend was going to fuck another woman. What was any of it for?

“Get out, Louis.” The words come out cold, and Nick feels like his entire being has been doused with ice water and he’s just frozen.

The younger man doesn’t seem to comprehend it at first. 

“Nick, stop it. I’m not leaving, I’ll sleep on the couch or something but I’m not leaving you right now!”

Isn’t it funny that now Louis’s making it sound like he’s staying because he cares about Nick? As if he could even care that much, when he’s off procreating in California?

“No. Your bags are still mostly packed from tour. You’re leaving. Stay with Liam or Harry or one of the other women you’ve apparently been fucking during this relationship. I don’t really give a shit right now, just get out!” Nick’s starting to lose it, and he just needs Louis to vacate the house before he cracks completely.

Louis hasn’t made any motion to move, and so Nick stalks to their bedroom, finding a couple of Louis’s tour bags that aren’t even undone yet. Hauling them back through the house, he hurls them to Louis’s feet.  
Nick wrenches the front door open, and drags the bags outside when Louis makes no move to do so. 

“Do you think I’m kidding? I’m serious, you’re not staying here tonight. This is not something we’re just going to work out, Louis, are you serious? You impregnated some random in LA, you slept with someone else, you don’t get to stay here tonight. Or ever.” He crosses his arms over his chest, willing for his breathing to even out. 

Louis shuffles his feet a bit, and slowly slips on a pair of his Vans by the door. 

“Fine, I’ll give you your space tonight, but Nick, we do need to talk. I’ll be at Liam’s, I guess.” He moves past Nick to the bags on the steps, and bends to pick them up. “I love you, yeah? Everything will be alright, because I love you Nick, I do.” Louis reaches as if to embrace Nick, but Nick steps further out of reach and into the house.

Nick has no further energy to continue this interaction, and he shuts the door before Louis can finish the rest of whatever spiel he had to convince Nick that it was all OK. He pauses, and he can hear the sound of Louis’s car starting up and reversing out of the drive. 

And if he listens carefully enough, he’s pretty sure he can hear his heart shattering, the icy remnants scattered across the flat, identical to the ceramic shards of the mug that lie discarded on the kitchen floor.


End file.
